"Ayah!" she called again, afraid, though she knew not why, to enter.
"She guards the jewels, heavenborn! Wait, while I bring the lamp!"
He crossed the room, brought it and stepped with it past Ruth, straight
into the room.
"See!" he said, holding the lamp up above his head. "There in her
bosom are the jewels! It was there, too, that she had the knife to
slay thee with! My sword is clean, yet, heavenborn! I slew her with
my fingers, thus!"
He kicked the prostrate ayah, and, as the black face with the wide-open
bloodshot eyes and the protruding tongue rolled sidewise and the body
moved, a little heap of jewels fell upon the floor. Mahommed Khan
stooped down to gather them, bending, a little painfully, on one old
knee--but stopped half-way and turned. There was a thud behind him
in the doorway. Ruth Bellairs had fainted, and lay as the ayah had
lain when Risaldar had not yet locked her in the room.
He raised the lamp and studied her in silence for a minute, looking
from her to the bound priest and back to her again.
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